Calculators
How calculators work
Every calculator uses the numbers you type. It does not look up a rate, a tax bill, or a local price. This page says what each one returns.
The groups match the category pages: Buy, Rent, Improve, and Ownership. A tool can appear in two groups when both pages list it. What the site is, and what a result is not, is on About.
Buy
These tools start from a price, a loan, or the cash you plan to bring. Principal and interest use the rate and term you enter. Tax, insurance, and mortgage insurance are added from the amounts you enter. The page does not look up a lender’s rate.
Mortgage Calculator
It returns a monthly housing payment: principal and interest on the price minus your down payment, plus the tax, insurance, HOA, and PMI you enter. PMI is added only when the down payment is under 20% and stays in that monthly line for the payoff. An extra payment goes to principal, and closing costs you enter are cash at closing, not part of the payment.
Home Affordability Calculator
It returns the highest home price whose principal, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA fit the tighter of two budgets: a housing share of your gross income, and a total-debt share after the debts you already pay. You type the income, debts, down payment, rate, tax, insurance, and both ratios.
How much house can I afford? · How much house can you afford?
Mortgage Payment Calculator
It returns the principal-and-interest payment on the loan amount, rate, and term you enter, and the interest over that term. Taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA are left out on purpose.
Down Payment Calculator
It returns the down payment in dollars and the loan amount: the home price times the percent you enter, then the price minus that cash. It also notes when that percent is under 20%, the usual point where conventional PMI comes into the picture.
Closing Cost Calculator
It returns buyer closing costs as the sum of the origination, title, escrow, service fees, and prepaid tax and insurance you enter, with percent fees applied to the loan or the price. Cash to close adds the down payment on top and is not part of the closing-cost total.
PMI Calculator
It returns monthly PMI, the loan times the annual rate you enter divided by 12, and only when the down payment leaves the loan above 80% of the price. A second line walks principal and interest at the rate and term you enter until the balance reaches 80% of the original price. That date ignores later appreciation.
Property Tax Calculator
It returns annual tax as the home value minus the exemption you enter, times the rate you enter, and a monthly figure that is that annual amount divided by 12. The taxable value does not go below zero, and the page does not look up a county bill.
Mortgage Payoff Calculator
It returns the month the balance reaches zero, using the balance, rate, and principal-and-interest payment you enter, with interest charged on the remaining balance each month. An extra monthly payment goes to principal, and the result shows the months and interest saved versus the same payment with nothing extra.
Rent vs Buy Calculator
It returns which path leaves more wealth after the years you choose: buying, or renting and investing the cash difference. Both paths start with the down payment plus buying closing costs you enter. Owning adds the rate, tax, insurance, maintenance, and HOA you type, plus PMI at 0.50% of the loan while the balance is above 80% of the original price, and the ending wealth uses the appreciation, selling costs, and investment return you type.
Should I rent or buy? · Rent or buy: how to read the result · When buying beats renting as the rate changes
Rental Property Calculator
It returns monthly cash flow after the mortgage, plus cap rate and cash-on-cash return. Collected rent is reduced by the vacancy you enter, operating costs are tax, insurance, management, maintenance, and HOA, cap rate divides annual net operating income by the price, and cash-on-cash divides annual cash flow by the down payment plus closing costs.
Rent
These tools start from rent, income, or a lease. A rent range is a share of gross income. Move-in cash adds the deposits you mark. Rent versus buy is also on the Buy page. You type the appreciation and the investment return. They are not a forecast.
Rent Affordability Calculator
It returns a suggested rent equal to your monthly gross income times the share you choose, and it also shows 25%, 30%, and 35%. A second line shows what is left under a 36% total-debt guideline after the debts you enter.
Rent vs Buy Calculator
It returns which path leaves more wealth after the years you choose: buying, or renting and investing the cash difference. Both paths start with the down payment plus buying closing costs you enter. Owning adds the rate, tax, insurance, maintenance, and HOA you type, plus PMI at 0.50% of the loan while the balance is above 80% of the original price, and the ending wealth uses the appreciation, selling costs, and investment return you type.
Should I rent or buy? · Rent or buy: how to read the result · When buying beats renting as the rate changes
Security Deposit Calculator
It returns cash due at move-in: the first month’s rent, plus monthly rent times the deposit months you enter, plus last month’s rent if you mark it due now, plus a pet deposit.
Rent Increase Calculator
It returns the rent after the years you enter, compounding today’s rent once a year by the increase you type, and the extra paid versus leaving the rent flat. Year one uses the starting rent, and each later year uses the increased rent.
Roommate Split Calculator
It returns each person’s share of rent and of utilities, divided by the number of people you enter. Each line is rounded to the cent, so the shares can be a penny off the exact total.
Lease Calculator
It returns the total rent, which is the monthly rent times the number of months, and the end date, which is the start date plus that many months. The rent does not increase during the term.
Improve
These tools turn length, width, and a depth or coverage figure into an order quantity. Waste is a percent you can edit on the tools that have it. The result is not a bid and not a code check.
Concrete Calculator
It returns cubic yards and bag counts from length, width, thickness in inches, and a waste percent. Yards are the volume plus waste, divided by 27. Bag counts use 0.60 cubic feet for an 80 lb bag and 0.45 for a 60 lb bag, rounded up.
Concrete Slab Calculator
It uses the same volume math as the concrete calculator and returns yards and bags for a formed slab. The practical difference is a higher default waste. It does not add gravel, wire, or rebar.
Concrete Pad Calculator
It returns concrete yards for the pad and gravel tons for the base. Concrete uses the slab formula with the thickness and waste you enter. Gravel uses the same footprint and the gravel depth, with no waste added, at 1.4 tons per cubic yard.
Square Footage Calculator
It returns the square feet of each rectangle you complete and the total of those areas, using length times width in feet. Blank extra areas are skipped, and a half-filled extra area asks for the missing side.
Cubic Yard Calculator
It returns cubic yards for a rectangular box and does not add waste. Cubic feet are length times width times depth, with depth converted from inches to feet, and yards are cubic feet divided by 27.
Cubic Feet Calculator
It returns cubic feet for the same kind of box: length times width times depth in inches converted to feet. It does not add waste.
Gravel Calculator
It returns cubic yards and tons from the length, width, and depth in inches. Tons are the yards times the density you enter. The density field starts at 1.4 tons per cubic yard.
Mulch Calculator
It returns cubic yards and bags from the bed length, width, and depth in inches. Bags are the cubic feet divided by the bag size you enter, rounded up. The bag size starts at 2 cubic feet.
Paint Calculator
It returns gallons to buy, rounded up to a whole gallon. Wall area is the perimeter times the height, a ceiling is added only if you include it, and door and window area is subtracted. Gallons are that paintable area times the coats, divided by the coverage per gallon you enter.
Flooring Calculator
It returns square feet to order and boxes to buy: length times width, plus the waste percent you enter, then that amount divided by the coverage per box, rounded up. Stair treads are not included in the room rectangle.
Tile Calculator
It returns how many tiles to buy, rounded up, from the room area plus the waste percent, divided by the coverage of one tile. Coverage is the tile face plus one grout joint on the length and one on the width. Bags of grout are not estimated.
Stair Calculator
It returns riser height, riser and tread counts, total run, and stringer length for one straight flight from the total rise, target riser, and tread depth you enter. The riser count starts by dividing the rise by the target and rounding, adds a riser if one would exceed 7.75 inches, uses one fewer tread than risers, and takes stringer length as the diagonal of the rise and the run.
Fence Calculator
It returns posts, pickets, and rails for a straight run from the length, post spacing, rails per section, picket width, and gap you enter. Posts are one more than the rounded-up sections, pickets fill the length using width plus gap, and gates, corners, and post-hole concrete are not included.
Sod Calculator
It returns square feet and pallets. The order is length times width plus the waste percent. Pallets are that area divided by the pallet size you enter, rounded up.
Roofing Calculator
It returns roofing squares and shingle bundles from the footprint, the pitch in inches of rise per 12 inches of run, and a waste percent. The pitch multiplier is the square root of rise squared plus 12 squared, divided by 12. Squares are the adjusted area divided by 100, and bundles assume three per square, rounded up.
Ownership
These tools start from a balance, a value, or bills you already pay. A refinance result is principal and interest only. Maintenance is a percent of value, unless you type your own rate. Payoff, property tax, and the rental property calculator are also on the Buy page.
Mortgage Payoff Calculator
It returns the month the balance reaches zero, using the balance, rate, and principal-and-interest payment you enter, with interest charged on the remaining balance each month. An extra monthly payment goes to principal, and the result shows the months and interest saved versus the same payment with nothing extra.
Refinance Calculator
It returns a new principal-and-interest payment, the monthly difference from the current loan, and how many months upfront closing costs take to earn back. You enter the balance, the years remaining, the new rate and term, and the closing costs. Adding those costs to the loan raises the new balance instead of a cash break-even, and taxes and insurance are not in either payment.
Home Equity Calculator
It returns equity, which is the home value minus the mortgage balance and does not display below zero, and loan-to-value, which is the balance divided by the value. It also shows the amount of value above an 80% loan, value times 0.8 minus the balance, and that line does not go below zero.
Home Maintenance Calculator
It returns an annual maintenance budget and a monthly set-aside, which is that budget divided by 12. The rate is 1% of value under 10 years, 1.5% from 10 to 24 years, and 2% at 25 years or older, unless you type a custom rate.
Utility Cost Calculator
It returns a monthly total and an annual total of the electric, gas, water, sewer, trash, and internet amounts you enter. The year is the monthly sum times 12. It does not model summer and winter swings.
Total Cost of Ownership Calculator
It returns a monthly cost that adds three pieces: the same housing payment as the mortgage calculator, a maintenance allowance equal to the home price times the rate you enter divided by 12, and the monthly utilities you enter.
Rental Property Calculator
It returns monthly cash flow after the mortgage, plus cap rate and cash-on-cash return. Collected rent is reduced by the vacancy you enter, operating costs are tax, insurance, management, maintenance, and HOA, cap rate divides annual net operating income by the price, and cash-on-cash divides annual cash flow by the down payment plus closing costs.
Property Tax Calculator
It returns annual tax as the home value minus the exemption you enter, times the rate you enter, and a monthly figure that is that annual amount divided by 12. The taxable value does not go below zero, and the page does not look up a county bill.
Questions
Does this page list every calculator?
Yes. Every calculator on the site is in Buy, Rent, Improve, or Ownership below. A few tools appear twice because those category pages share them.
Does a calculator use a live rate or a local tax bill?
No. You type the rate, the tax, the insurance, and the measurements. The page does not look them up.
Why can the two mortgage payment tools disagree?
The mortgage calculator adds tax, insurance, PMI when the down payment is under 20%, and HOA on top of principal and interest. The mortgage payment calculator returns principal and interest only.
Why can the PMI line differ between tools?
On the mortgage calculator, PMI is a monthly add-on for the whole payoff when the down payment is under 20%. The PMI calculator also estimates the month a normal amortization reaches 80% of the original price. That date ignores later appreciation.
Does rent versus buy predict home prices?
No. You enter the appreciation and the investment return. Change either one and the lead can move.
Is a material result a contractor bid?
No. Material tools use the size, waste, and yields you enter. They help you order. They do not price labor or replace a local code check.